Formula One – Brut? Champagne spraying just F1 fun for Hamilton

• Chinese hostess plays down Hamilton champagne incident

World champion Lewis Hamilton has said he was just trying to show the fun side of Formula One when he sprayed champagne in the face of a Chinese Grand Prix podium hostess last weekend.
Sunday’s incident, captured in photographs that showed the woman flinching as the Mercedes driver aimed a stream of fizz at her, triggered condemnation from critics in Britain and Germany as well as on Chinese social media.
The woman herself played down what happened in an interview with the Shanghai Daily newspaper and Hamilton said he was relieved to hear that.
“Ultimately it was a great weekend, and generally my actions are through excitement,” the Briton told reporters after arriving at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Thursday.
“This is Formula One, it’s the pinnacle of motor sport and I’d just won a grand prix for the team. You should see it was a kind of a fun thing. I would never, ever intend to disrespect or try to embarrass someone like that.”
Hamilton said it had not overshadowed his week because he had only just been briefed on the controversy, and he questioned why it had been brought up.
“This is a sport that so many people love, and the more we show character and fun it reflects just how great this sport is, and that’s what I try to do,” said the 30-year-old championship leader.
“It hasn’t affected me, and it’s nice to know that the lady kind of wrote in. If she had written in and said she was really unhappy then perhaps I would be more concerned.”
The Shanghai Daily quoted 22-year-old Liu Siying, a graduate of the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, as saying the incident “lasted for only one or two seconds, and I didn’t think too much about it”.
“I think some foreign media are more sensitive about the topic than local media,” she added. “I was just told by my employer to stand on the podium, and that’s what I did.”
Hamilton was speaking after Britain’s Times newspaper condemned his behaviour in a leader column.
“Hamilton is a great driver but nothing gives him the right to behave like a hooligan. Not even winning,” it declared.
The practice of jubilant drivers spraying champagne on the podium has become a ritual dating back decades, even if some critics see it as uncouth while others shudder at the waste of good bubbly.

Raikkonen leads Ferrari one-two in Bahrain practice

Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari one-two in first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday while Formula One champions Mercedes lurked well down the timesheets after doing their own thing.
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was only 16th fastest while Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg was 15th, with Raikkonen and team mate Sebastian Vettel putting in their fastest laps late in the session.
With the action starting amid track temperatures of 53 degrees Celsius, far hotter than will be the case in qualifying and Sunday’s twilight race, Mercedes opted for a different approach and longer runs.
“Don’t expect any stellar jumps up the order before end of session. Our tyres have 15 laps on them where others will be running fresh sets,” the team said on Twitter, before bringing both cars back to the garage nine minutes before the end.
Raikkonen’s quickest lap of one minute 37.827 seconds came towards the end after temperatures had dropped to the mid-40s.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas was third fastest for Williams with Spanish rookie Carlos Sainz fourth in a Toro Rosso, ahead of Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren’s Spaniard Fernando Alonso was seventh on the timesheets after briefly filling the top spot for a team struggling for performance at the start of their new Honda partnership.
Team mate Jenson Button, however, failed to record a lap time after spinning and stopping on track in the opening minutes with what appeared to be an engine shutdown.
Mercedes are expected to dominate Sunday’s race, with world champion Hamilton and Rosberg determined to win another duel in the desert after last year’s thriller and a recent spat between the pair in China.
“I think with these tyres and with Ferrari in the mix, I think we could see a real special race here,” Hamilton said on Thursday.
“Last year I didn’t qualify on pole here, I’ve never been on pole here so that’s the challenge but as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the challenge of trying to win the race,” added last year’s winner.